Summertime at MFM...

Yes folks, summer is here! There is no escape from the heat, there is that of course, but summertime also means a bit of free time for me. So yaay! This does not mean I do anything much with these two months, but still its a great feeling. People that meet me go, "WOW you are so lucky to have this break" Depending on how much I like them I tell them the truth or just let them be jealous. Of course the truth being that I have a fair bit of work commitment in this time, considering we put off many things to the summer months. In many ways though the days can be a little less structured, we are happy to have meetings a little later in the day, wind up a little earlier in the evening, and so on. This year I have so far managed to avoid my usual foolishness in signing up for a billion things for the summer, so that I can spend more time on research per se, which I am looking forward to.

On the home front, I usually take a few weeks of vacation. In the past six years we have had two weddings in the family during summer, which have been fun things to do with the vacation. I have had a couple of weeks of relaxation at Mysore, with visits to the zoo and hanging out with my extended family and so forth. Some other functions (the monster's first birthday for one). A few trips out to watch kiddie plays at Horniman Circle Gardens. A few times of hanging out with my sis and the little ones. We went off to Romania & Greece last summer - part work, part vacation. Till now, since the concept of a vacation was non-existent as far the monster is concerned, we could pretty much figure this stuff out based on our schedules, mostly mine.

So what will this summer bring? A baby in the family (my sis-in-law) for one, which I am looking forward to. I have been racking my brains (and googling) for a week long break to some place cooler than Mumbai, but that has not gone far thanks to too many moving parts (i.e. the husband's work schedule). The usual options of Chennai & Mysore are out for a variety of reasons, one of them being that they are not particularly more cool than Mumbai. :-) Exotic foreign locales are out because of lack of enthu to deal with visas and so on. I am getting a tad pained and impatient, do want to get away from this flat for a bit, but first a short trip to Bangalore, then we figure this stuff out.

Meanwhile, I have to get my driving license (don't ask), do some dentistry, and above all ensure that the monster is healthy and curb its tendency to mouth off, get it to learn swimming and practise its school stuff (!) Its a time of some changes at work, and since I find myself in the thick of the planning, some interesting things are in the offing. Adventure and experiences-wise the summer promises to be quite boring, though rest, relaxation and recuperation-wise it holds promise.